San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-10-26

could supply Following so closely on the
heels Of a children's party this gift would
have been indeed fatal one 10 most infants.
| But observation had convinced me that Miss
Pussy had the stomach of an ostrich, and l
was certain that she was the sort Of child to
come up smiling after every round of sweet
stuff.
Eight years passed before again saw Miss
Pussy. 1t was at Rome. | came up from
Naples and went to a hotel pension behind
the Pantheon, which was a famous resort for
genteel widows and spinsters who were spend
ing their declining winter days in the Eternal
City. At my first dinner l counted no less
than twenty women Of uncertain age, sand.
wiched in among foreign young girls and
sickly men. The black looks that were cast
upon me by three lean, British spinsters who
sat opposite me did not improve my appetite.
| They all wore soiled, white, knitted shawls,
and wrangled among themselves on the sub
| ject Of church architecture. At my left was
| an American maiden lady who had dyed
| yellow hair. heard later that she was going
| over to the Church of Rome. At my right
sat portly dame with Roman profile and
| iron gray hair. Her face was singularly
familiar She raised her shell eyeglass and
| gazed with quiet sarcasm upon the corpse of
| puny little bird which rested from its joys
and sorrows upon her plate. Her gesture re-
minded me Of certain Californian festivities
in which | had once participated, and recog-
nized the lady who had told me the tale Of the
| "Circus Blacks"
ais this Mrs. Penderlipl" asked, at length.
She turned and looked at me with ready
amiability, after the European table d'hote
manner
al have met you somewhere" she said pres
emily, "but cannot recall time and place"
reminded Mrs. Penderlip of the half hours
chat we had lad eight years before at the
house of the Californian mining man, and
asked her what had become of the "Circus
Blacks"
"They are at Rome" said Mrs. Penderlip,
1and in high feather. They move in court
ircles, thanks to Pussy's beauty, and her fir
tations with poverty stricken noblemen. |
SEQ a good deal of them. never even recog-
nized them in California. / couldn't, you
| know But over here it is different Money
| ls all that counts with the Italians. They
| think all Americans are plebeians. Mrs
Black is very glad to have me vouch for her
| pedigree. l never say anything about the
| bareback act or the market stall or the tai
| Ior's shop, and il wouldn't make any difference
| if did. / like Mrs Blacks opera box and
| her good dinners the dinners at this house
SOW worse every day., and she thinks Inc an
| excellent chaperone for Pussy. Even girls
| like Pussy Black have to be chaperoned at
| times in this scandal loving city. The New
| York and Boston women turn up their noses
at the Blacks, but there isn't a girl in the
| American colony as handsome as Pussy, and
with her money she ought to marry we'll
| The other daughter, Ella, is married and
lives at San Francisco. Nowadays, the tops
are all getting to be bottoms, and the bottoms
| tops"
Mrs Penderlip had evidently mellowed
with age. She informed NE, presently, that
she had met with financial reverses, and was
| practcing social aniability as profession.
Mrs. Penderlip, few days later, offered to
| take me to call on the Blacks, assuring me
that Pussy remembered me with pleasure,
| and had expressed herself as delighted to re-
new the acquaintance.
"The live at the Hotel d'Angleterre,n said
Mrs. Penderlip as we crossed the piazza Of the
| Pantheon. "Ihat sort of people never have
| home"
We had Just entered the vestibule of the
| hotel, and were giving our cards to a fiunky
| in red plush aud gold lace, when a tremen-
| dous rafting and rushing was heard, a swish
| ing of silk draperies, clanking Of spurs and
swords, and tearing headlOng down the length
| Of the wide crimson carpeted stairs, with the
| towering Camellia trees either side came a
| lovely, graceful girl, dragging a long, dark
| blue train after her. She was covered with
| Jet ornaments that made a noise as of falling
| hailstones Her beautiful face was shaded by
| q cavaliers hat, with long, dropping, dark
| blue plumes. 1t was Pussy Black She took
her stairs as rapidly as of old.
Behind her skipped one Of those superb
| specimens of italian military manhood that
| decorate the thoroughfares of Rome, and do
| so much to make the Eternal City attractive
to American young women. He was hand
some youth and, with hislong, black and yell
low legs, his shining accouterments and his
neatly corseted figure, he reminded me Of a
brilliant dragon fly lowering over an exquis-
lite flower.
Pussy greeted me cordially, and was ex-
tremely sorry that an engagement to walk
| with Count Castelnuovo, whom she presented
to me, would prevent her remaining at home
that afternoon, but her namma-she no lon
ger said "ma"-was upstairs, and would be
| charmed to see me. Then she danced off into
| the sunlight under the arched doorway, ac-
companied by her count, and all the old gen.
| tlemen came out Of the reading room, with
| their Galignani and their Times in their
hands, to see the pretty American girl whisk
herself into the street.
Mrs Black was very gracious to me. She
| had acquired artistic tastes since her arrival
ut Rome, and was studying sculpture. l won
her affections by prasing bust of her hus-
hand which she had just finished. 1 ingrati-
ated myself with Mr.. Black by sympathizing
with his desire to give up all this foreign nom
sense, and go back to dear old California. He
hated absnthe and vermouth, and his wife
wouldn't let him drink whisky. She had said
that it was dow" Mrs Black was a perfect
godsend to the starving artists who infest
Rome. They regarded her in the light Of val
uabe Attorney COW that gave milk freely,
and her rooms were filled with charity pict-
ures.
The Blacks had been presented at the OUR
inal and went to all the court balls. King
Umberto had pronounced Pussy bellina, as
indeed she was, and Queen Marguerite had
smiled graciously upon the whole family.
Pussy had in her train a large number Of
young men belonging to the Russian, Italian
and French nobility. The few American
men who represented society" at Rome that
winter rather sneered at her. Some English
men residing in the city considered her "a
very odd girl, you know" although they all
admired her beauty. But they were fright
ened off at last by her sharp little tongua
Pussy had a keen eye for a fortune hunter,
md she did not take kindly to the British
variety of that class.
Judge of my delight, my surprise and my
hope when Pussy Black singled me out from
g 49, fal